Ukraine has lashed out at FIFA after the governing body of world football showed a map that seemingly omitted Crimea as part of the country. The incident took place last week when FIFA held a European qualifier draw for the 2026 World Cup that is being jointly hosted by the US, Mexico and Canada. The map was intended to show countries that cannot be drawn to play against each other for geopolitical reasons, such as Ukraine vs Belarus, Armenia vs Azerbaijan, Spain vs Gibraltar, Kosovo vs Serbia, and Kosovo vs Bosnia and Herzegovina.
In the middle of the presentation, FIFA excluded Crimea from the Ukrainian region, instantly leading to backlash from Kyiv. Notably, Crimea has been under Russian occupation since 2014 with only a handful of countries recognising the peninsula as Russian territory.
Ukraine Foreign Ministry spokesman Heorhiy Tykhy took to X (formerly Twitter) and tagged FIFA while questing it for "redrawing" the international map.
"Are you OK, @FIFAcom? By redrawing international borders in yesterday's broadcast, you not only acted against international law, but also supported Russian propaganda, war crimes, and the crime of aggression against Ukraine," said Mr Tykhy.
"We fixed the map for you and expect a public apology," Mr Tykhyi added while sharing the correct map.
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Ukraine FA writes letter
The Ukrainian Football Association also wrote a letter to FIFA expressing its concerns. "We write to express our deep concern regarding the infographics map of Europe displayed during the television broadcast of the European Qualifiers draw for the FIFA World Cup 2026 on December 13, 2024," read the letter.
"Taking into account a number of official decisions and resolutions adopted by the Fifa Council and the UEFA executive committee since 2014....we emphasize that today's version of the cartographic image of Ukraine is completely unacceptable and looks like an inconsistent position of Fifa and UEFA," it added.
In response to the outrage expressed by the Ukrainian Football Association, FIFA also issued a statement acknowledging the issue. "FIFA is aware of an issue that affected one of the graphics shown during the draw and has addressed the situation with the Federation. The segment has been removed."
Ukraine will be competing alongside Iceland, Azerbaijan and the yet-to-be-determined winners of France's Nations League quarter-final against Croatia in Group D of the quadrennial tournament, little less than 18 months from now.
